Wine and Dine Half Marathon 2015

Lucy. How I love thee and always will.

She messed with my race schedule (as well as totally shifting my life in many ways). I wasn't able to run last summer like I had wanted to, I missed out on many of my favorite races and as motivation to get myself off the couch back into - I have convinced Marc to run a runDisney (his first and what will be his longest distance) race with me, we are going to be running the Wine and Dine this coming November, I have been talking about this race since I found out I was pregnant and realized that this sweet baby girl would wreck beautiful havoc on my race schedule (yes, there are far more important things in life, however, I do still love to run). Originally I was hoping to do the Tower of Terror 10 miler however, since they aren't running that race in 2015 it was off the list for this year, hard to run a race that isn't happening.

I am jazzed about the November race on several levels:

• I won't have to be putting on crap tons (yes, this is a technical distance) of miles on the treadmill in the winter months, I will get to train all summer/fall (where hopefully we will still be snow free come early November)
• Who doesn't love runDisney races?!
• My parents are coming along to hang out with Lucy while Marc and I run
• Who doesn't love Disney?!
• I am not as jazzed about the late evening time slot, however, I will adjust and be just fine - Suzi and I ran the Wine and Dine a few years ago and I MUCH prefer the before the crack of dawn time slot over the late evening time slot
• HOWEVER, I am WAYYY less nervous about running ridiculously late (okay not really ridiculously late for most people, just people like me who like to go to bed early) than I was before the Wine and Dine having done it before
• I love Disney. End Story.

365 DAYS from today I WILL be running the Wine and Dine Half Marathon..... let the countdown begin and the training continue!

California

I seriously can't believe I am actually here in California! I remember when we were booking our vacation and continuing education event thinking about how far away these ten days were and now we are here, loving every minute of it.

I am thankful for the sunshine and the chance to run and be outside without feeling like I am heading out into the antarctic. I am thankful for time with my parents (who now that I am not a teenager any more I actually adore), friends both new and old, and time for myself. It is glorious. While I miss people and things back
home I am still jazzed to be out and about.

The Extravaganza is by far my favorite continuing education event each year, I love the diversity of people, I love the freedom to ask questions, I love the chance to gather with colleagues who are wresting with many of the same issues I am wrestling with at work. I love the variety of speakers and the chance to worship without having to lead.

Side perk: we are in Anaheim, so I was able to run the Tinkerbell Half Marathon last weekend and we all are frequenters of Disneyland when we have some free time. WHOOP WHOOP.

I am certain when I return home you can bank on being overwhelmed with tons of photos.

2012-2013 Calendar

AHHHH my colleague and I just set our 2012-2013 calendar for church, it is crazy exciting and crazy overwhelming. We have tons going on and lots of new things happening all of which I am super jazzed about but when I see everything that needs to get done it makes my head spin!

Excitement for 2012-2013 at Bethlehem -- we are going to try Family Faith Journey Sunday School for our 2-4th graders and their parents - parents and youth in Sunday school together! I am jazzed about this prospect because all the research shows that kids learning alongside their parents is the most effective means of ministry. I am excited to see where this leads us. This is a daunting task to me as it means I need to write a years worth of curriculum. We are going to try a 3 year rotation focusing one year on the old testament, one year on the new testament, and one year on lutheran basics. We are opting for a very non-traditional Sunday school type model for our 2-4th graders with the potential to expand it to more grades after we try it for a year or two to see how it goes.

The way I understand my role as pastor is that there are three key aspects to passing on the faith to youth/kids - one is the role of the parents, one is the role of the church (pastors included), and one is the role of other adults - together we all get to share the faith and help kids and youth to grow in the faith.

Our Family Faith Journey will have several aspects: serving in worship (ushering, greeting, reading, leading the Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed, and communion serving), learning the faith (learning the stories and the Lutheran basics - grace, law, gospel, saint, sinner, trinity), community (community building activities - fellowship), and service (reaching out to the world). Through the course of the three years we will also be focusing on faith practices such as prayer.

I am excited to see how the Holy Spirit moves in and through our learning and growing as families. I pray that this will help to take away from the parents dropping their kids off for Sunday School and leaving to go grocery shopping or whatever and will help them to learn and grow alongside their kids.

Come Holy Spirit, Come.